Car hand brake



ramea- Fet. 20,1923.

NITED Is'rATl-:s

PATENT OFFICE.

IBQHN F. OCONBTOR,v 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 WILLIAM H. MNEB, 0FA

CRAZY, NEW 'YORK can. HAND BE.

Application filed March 1,- 1919. Serial No. 279,943.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN F. OCoNNon, a citizen of the United States, residin at Chicago, in the county of Copk and tate of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Car Hand Brakes, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompan ing drawings, forming a part of this speci cation.

This invention relates to improvements in 'car hand brakes.

In present practice, the most common form of hand brake employed on railway freight cars is that of the vertical staff type having Ia hand wheel at the top thereof. The vert-ical stal' extends alongside the end wall of the car and a platform or step is usually provided on the wall of the car so that the brakeman may stand thereon and operate the foot-controlled ratchet during the setting or release of the brake. v

In vrecent years, many attempts have been made to provide increased leverage ratio for the application of the brakes by hand and many of these attempts have involved a drop-handle lever and ratchet arrangement. While the desired increased leverage ratio is obtained with such devices, considerable objection has been encountered in certain quarters to the use of such devices on the ground that the brakemen, being accustomed to the ordinary hand wheel, lind considerable difficulty in adapting themselves to the drophandle lever ratchet type and object to the use of the latter.

rlhe object Vof my invention is to provide an exceedingly simple arrangement for hand brakes for railway cars wherein the brakeman applies the brakes in the usual well known manner but is provided with a higher leverage ratio mechanism for so doing.

Another object of the invention is 'to provide a multiplying leverage ratio arrangement for hand brakes of the vertical staff type in which the arrangement is simple, inexpensive and such that it can be applied to the usual arrangement of ordinary vertical stad now in service, with only slight changes.

ln the drawing forming a part of this specification Figure 1 is an elevational view of a portion of the end of a freight car A the brak'eman stands showing my improvements in connection therewith. Fig. 2 is a horizontal, sectional view upon an enlarged scale taken substantially on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. And Fig. 3 is a vertical, detail, sectional View taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

ln said drawing, 10 denotes the end wall of what is commonly termed a gondola freight car, said wall being provided with the usual small platform or step 11 on which while applying the brake in the usual manner. At the bottom of the car is the usual stirrup 12 forming a lower bearing for the vertical brake staff and in which is accommodated the usual spool or chain-winding drum 13.

In the construction shown, the vertical brake staff is formed with an upper section and a -lower section B. The lower sec'- tion B is journaled at its lower end as indicated at 14 in the stirrup 12 and has a l squared or other non-circular section to fit within the correspondingly shaped recess of the drum 13 so that the latter rotates in unison wit-h said section B, as will be understood. The upper section A of the sta-if is provided at its top end with a hand wheel 15 of the usual form, said section A being journaled in a suitable-stirrup or bracket 16 and prevented from accidental upward 'movement by asuitable collar or other device indicated at 17.

As clearly shown in Fig. 3, the lower end of the upper section A of the staff is squared as indicated at 18 and the -upper end of the lower section of the staff B is similarly squared as indicated at 19, the said adjacent squared ends of the two sections of the staff being located slightly below the platform 11, as shown in Fig. 3. 0n the squared section 18 of the upper section A of the stati' is placed a casting C having an upper ratchet wheel 20, intermediate bearing section 21 and lower gear wheel 22. Said casting C extends through acorresponding p'erfora` tion 23 in the platform, thus forming a suitable bearing for the lower end of the staff section A. The ratchet wheel 20 cooperates with a foot-operable pawl or dog 24 pivotally mounted on a suitable pin 25 that extends through the platform and down through a stirrup plate 26 bolted or otherwise suitably rigidly secured to the under Mid LSi 1fofl1ieplatane 11. The pin 25 is had f against .accidental removal by any suitable means such as the cotter 27 Rotatably mounted on municatedtothe gear wheel 28 and from the latter to the gear eter, which' gear wheel 30 is carried by. the

- I .squared seetlon 19 on the upper end of the staff element B.v `The latter is suitablv journaled at its upper end ina recess 31 in the stirrup plate 26. From the recedin connection with the description taken in i section A and the stalf section B is mul- -tation'in the usual manner, that is,

tiplied by an interposed gearing involving the gear whee 22,` 28, 29 and 30. It will also be observed that thel brake staff is locked against accidental reverse roby the ordinary foot-controlled locking pawl and ratchet located on the usual brakemans.

a platform. Furthermore, thev arrangement is such that the old single-piece vertical brake staff may be reemployed by taking the same and cutting it oil into .sections of the required length and then reforging the cut ends so as to provide the necessary squared sections to receive the corresponding gear .wheels This eil'ectsv a. large saving-to the railroads since the only additional cost -in providing the multiplied leverage ratio reysides in the provision of the three gear castings, the stirrup plate 26 and a very small amount of labor required to ap ly the parts. The arrangement 1s exceeding y simple; inexpensive; and is lone which is unobjectionable to brakemen accustomed to the o ration of the ordinary vertical staff type o hand brakes.

Although I scribed what I now consider the preferred manner ofcarrying out my invention, the same is merely illustrative and I contemplate che pin 25 a double gearcasting Dhaving an upper .relagear wheel '22 on the staff section A so- -wheel 29. The latter l meshes with a gear wheel 300i larger diam-l ormed' bearing portion j ournaled m Siidlplatform a foot-operated pawl carried bythe platform i' rawing, itv is evident that the leverage ratio between the stai' Aend of the lower stai:` section,

ameter and have herein shownand de such Achanges and modifications that come'.-`

hereto.

a lower relatively small disaid platform,-

an intermediate ameter gear portion, and

and coop'erable with said ratchet wheel; a larger diameter gear carried by the 'upper and rotatable in unison therewith; and multiplying gearing interposed between said gears.

. 2. In a brake for freight carshaving a brakemansplatform provided on one wall thereof, the combination with up er and lower brake staff sections having t eir adjacent ends disposed near the level of said platform, one of said sections being manually operable and the other adapted to have the brakev chain wound thereon; of a onepiece. sleeve carried by and rotatable in unison with said up er staif section and journaled in the platfbrm, said sleeve comprising a ratchet wheel, a gear of small dian intermediate bearing portion an upper ratchet wheel j portion immediately adjacent the Ytop of saA of a diameter at least equal to the outer `l diameter of the gear and smaller than the diameter of the ratchet Wheel, a foot oper-V ated pawl carried by the platform and-co'- operable with said ratchet wheel; a larger diameter gear fixed on the upper end of the lower staff section and rotatable in unison therewith; and multiplying gearing interposed between said gears.

In witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name this 9th day of Feb., 1919.

. JOHN r. oooNNoR. 

